System for checking the performance of energy and monitoring photovoltaic solar or wind plants

ABSTRACT

The invention allows verifying the performance of energy over time of any photovoltaic or wind solar plants whose value of energy produced is made available on computers accessible through a public data communication network and monitoring the operation thereof. The performance of energy is verified by comparing the plant production values of an even long past period of time up to the start of the system, with the current ones, even if the amount of energy produced has never been measured by its user in the past. The technical problem of calculating the performance of plants referred to the initial start up values and in the past operation time of the plant itself, the automatic processing of numerous physical data, the automatic production of reports for technical and information purposes, the sending of alarms and alerts on the performance decay, is solved by the invention. The energy production values over time (even from the plant start up) are collected by computers connected to the Internet public network which present them in a hypertext structure of accessible documents, the current ones from an energy meter inserted downstream of the plant and the historical and current weather ones from computers also connected to the Internet public network. The result obtained by the system is the automatic production, i.e. in almost zero processing time, of operating reports that include the energy produced, the revenues and a performance index over time with energy performance measurements, graphs, analysis and alerts of photovoltaic solar and wind plants.

PRIOR ART

Energy production plants have spread enormously due to the recentavailability of technology that allows the construction of plants of anysize and powered by renewable sources, particularly the sun, wind andwater, and to the presence of strong economic incentives.

In recent years, starting from 2006, a strong incentivization hasstimulated the construction of the same and many people have investedcapital whose return is a function of the plant yield. A fall inproduction or performance other than expected means putting theinvestment at risk.

All payments, whether the mere sale of energy or incentive, are relatedto the measurement of the energy carried by the production metercertified and installed by the energy provider, and whose values areelectronically sent to the offices of the same. Said meter is theinstrument designed to the measurements on which said payments arebased.

Devices exist on the market which measure the energy produced by theplant continuously and which send alerts in case of a severe drop in theenergy produced, but which do not allow knowing the data detected by themeter and used by the energy provider, available initially only to themand by them then sent to those who manage the incentives, GSE in Italy.The latter provides the data on a restricted access portal on a monthlybasis to the owner of the plant or its designee.

Moreover, the devices on the market, by measuring the energy only fromthe moment they have been put into operation, if not activated upon theplant start up, do not allow in any way the analysis of the plantoperation over time as they do not have the historical production data,thus making it impossible to identify non-destructive faults and verifythe performance of energy over time, since the basic reference value islacking.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to automatically check theperformance of energy of photovoltaic solar and wind plants based onhistorical data also since the plant start up, monitor the operation ofthe same and automatically generate reports of the checks and automaticalarms and alerts based on said performance.

The invention allows verifying the performance of energy over time ofany photovoltaic or wind solar plants whose value of energy produced ismade available on computers accessible through a public datacommunication network and monitoring the operation thereof.

The performance of energy is verified by comparing the plant productionvalues of an even long past period of time up to the start of thesystem, with the current ones, even if the amount of energy produced hasnever been measured by its user in the past.

The technical problem of calculating the performance of plants referredto the initial start up values and in the past operation time of theplant itself, the automatic processing of numerous physical data, theautomatic production of reports for technical and information purposes,the sending of alarms and alerts on the performance decay, is solved bythe invention.

The energy production values over time (even from the plant start up)are collected by computers connected to the Internet public networkwhich present them in a hypertext structure of accessible documents, thecurrent ones from an energy meter inserted downstream of the plant andthe historical and current weather ones from computers also connected tothe Internet public network.

The result obtained by the system is the automatic production, i.e. inalmost zero processing time, of operating reports that include theenergy produced, the revenues and a performance index over time withenergy performance measurements, graphs, analysis and alerts ofphotovoltaic solar and wind plants.

Such objects as well as others which will become apparent hereinafterare achieved by combining the measurement of the energy produced by theplant with sensors applied thereon, the values read by the energyprovider when starting the plant and the estimated production obtainedfrom the weather data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further features and advantages of the invention will appear moreclearly from the description of a preferred embodiment, shown by way ofnon-limiting example in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1: shows a block diagram of the invention in the section “Systemobject of the invention”, generalizing the connection mechanisms betweenthe parts. The upper section of the FIGURE shows elements of theexternal world to the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EXAMPLE OF INVENTION

With reference to FIG. 1, a preferred example of the invention is shown.

The object of the invention can be subject to changes and variations,all falling within the inventive concept described in the claims. Thedetails may be replaced by other technically equivalent elements and thematerials may be different depending on the needs without departing fromthe scope of protection of the invention.

An amperometric clamp (9) is located downstream of the production plant(1), on the wires that supply the energy to the grid. Optionally,meaning that it is not essential for the operation of the invention butwhich in some cases might give more accurate results, the signalcontaining the data transmitted is collected the standard way by theserial ports of the plant inverters. An inverter is a device thatconverts electrical energy in the form of direct current intoalternating current with characteristics suitable for being supplied tothe grid. Inverters are present in all photovoltaic plants and in sometypes of wind and hydraulic turbines.

The current value measured by the clamp (9) and/or the digital datacollected from the ports is entered into an electronic device (4) whichtransmits the data to a computer (5) by means of a receiving device (3).

The data from the transmission device (4) to the reception device (3) istransmitted in any of the following ways, all possible separately:

-   -   via Wi-Fi to a router connected to the Internet and located in        the vicinity of the plant    -   via Ethernet to an Internet connection    -   via LoRa long range transmission systems and connection to the        Internet    -   via a “SmartMesh” network and connection to the Internet    -   via Wi-Fi with low power devices implementing the 6LoWPAN        standard and the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol or the SIGFOX        technology, including through the implementation of a SmartMesh        network and connection to the Internet.

The electronic processor (5) receives the data and performs calculationsand produces the result. The computer (5) also periodically gathers froma computer (10) of the GSE, i.e. the energy provider, plant productiondata and payments made, values available in the plant owner account andof those authorized by them.

With the first access it gathers all the historical values since theplant start up.

The gathering of data is done by authorization of the same owner anddelivery of the login passwords.

The electronic processor (5) also collects the values radiation and/orwind speed and, if necessary, temperature and other weather parametersfrom computers (11) and (12) of satellite and terrestrial weather dataproviders.

With the data available, the electronic processor (5) creates diagramsand tables to make the plant yield, produced energy values, incentivespaid with amounts and dates, plant efficiency, clear.

Given the expected energy value calculated due to the availability ofthe resource value known by the weather data, the time performance ofthe plant is calculated as the ratio of hourly energy measured by thedevice at the plant on the expected energy value. The monthlyperformance is calculated as the ratio between energy measured by themeter read by the computer (10) of the GSE and the expected energy. Themonthly performance value is compared with the average hourlyperformance for a comparison of the proper functioning of the officialmeter—provider—GSE chain.

Calculations are then applied to obtain the historical performanceanalysis of the plant, thus allowing the evaluation of any performancedegradation and, more generally, the performance over time.

The result of the calculations is made available on the electronicprocessor (7) and collected by the device (8), which will display it ona led screen and allow access via browser or software application. Theserver will also generate a report that will be transmitted to theparties concerned.

The description therefore relates to an automatic system to check theperformance of energy over time and monitor photovoltaic or wind powerplants, which do not necessarily have an energy meter installed by theuser, connected to the grid whose production data is read by a meterinstalled by the energy provider and whose energy measurement values aremade available on a hypertext structure of documents that are accessibleand reside on computers connected to the Internet network, comprising:

-   -   a. an energy meter produced by the plant, part of the system,        installed upstream of the plant    -   b. a means of transmission and processing coupled to said meter    -   c. a results display device for monitoring and verification    -   d. a central processor which:        -   i. collects the energy data produced by said hypertext            structure of documents        -   ii. collects meteorological data from services residing on            computers connected to the Internet network        -   iii. processes the data received and collected.

The system performs the automatic production of historical productionreports of the photovoltaic plants, the production is the result of theabove processing.

Moreover, the system and respective method processes an expected energyvalue, calculated from the value of the resource, known from the weatherdata, so as to calculate the monthly and hourly performance in relationto said expected energy value, carry out historical performance analysisof the plant and obtain production evaluations over a large time frame,by which degradations or faults may be identified, and provide one ormore tables and/or report of the data produced that include theperformance calculation.

The method then involves producing an analysis of efficiency of theplants using historical data obtained from automatic readings comparedto precise values obtained from an energy meter downstream andmeteorological data obtained automatically through Internet connectionand access.

The system can also work without energy meter downstream of the plant toproduce historical efficiency analyses of the plants using data obtainedfrom automatic readings from computers connected to the publictelecommunications network the Internet.

The system and method sends failure alarms of the plant generated whenthe parameters resulting from monitoring, compared with the results ofthe check made by the system, deviate from a predefined threshold.

The system performs the automatic reading of the energy values producedby the production plants and made available the on public or privateaccess of computers connected to the Internet by management entities,such as the Electrical Services Provider (GSE) or ENEL Distribuzione.

The production of energy production reports, performance of the plantscompared to the economic values with the automatic reading of theeconomic values associated with the production of energy produced by theproduction plants, made available for public or private access fromcomputers connected to the network by entities acquiring themeasurements from meters, the Internet by the Electrical ServicesProvider (GSE) or ENEL.

The transmission device consists of a device with a low consumption,preferably, it implements the 6LoWPAN standard and the IEEE 802.15.4protocol, also through the implementation of a “mesh” network.

The transmission device consists of a long-range, LoRa type device.

INDEX OF REFERENCES USED IN THE TABLES

-   -   1—photovoltaic solar plant    -   2—produced energy meter    -   3—energy measurement receiver device    -   4—energy measurement transmitter device    -   5—computer    -   6—public data transmission network    -   7—computer    -   8—display device    -   9—clamp    -   10—service management entity's computer    -   11—weather and satellite's computer    -   12—weather service's computer    -   13—weather stations    -   14—satellite

1. An automatic system to check the performance of energy over time andmonitor photovoltaic and wind power plants, which do not necessarilyhave an energy meter installed by the user, connected to the grid whoseproduction data is read by a meter installed by the energy provider andwhose energy measurement values are made available on a hypertextstructure of documents that are accessible and reside on computersconnected to the Internet network, comprising: a. an energy meterproduced by the plant, part of the system, installed upstream of theplant; b. transmission mechanism and processing coupled to said meter;c. a results display device for monitoring and verification; and d. acentral processor configured to: i. collect the energy data produced bysaid hypertext structure of documents that are accessible and residingon computers connected to the Internet network, ii. collectmeteorological data from services residing on computers connected to theInternet network, iii. process said data; wherein the system createshistorical reports of production of the photovoltaic plants as a resultof this processing.
 2. The system according to claim 1, in which thetransmission device consists of a device with a very low consumptionthat implements the 6LoWPAN standard and the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol,also through the implementation of a “mesh” network.
 3. The systemaccording to claim 1, in which the transmission device consists of along-range, LoRa type device.
 4. The system according to claim 1, inwhich the value of the current measured by the energy meter can bereplaced by the digital data of the data transmitted in the standard wayby the serial ports of the plant inverters.
 5. A method for theverification of performance in energy over time, and the monitoring ofphotovoltaic and wind power plants, the method comprising a. acquiring,automatically through connection and access via the Internet or throughautomatic readings, i. the historical data of the energy performance ofthe same plants ii. satellite and terrestrial weather data of the valuesof radiation and/or wind speed and possibly temperature and otherweather parameters; b. acquiring the precise values of the plantproduction as well, c. processing of an expected energy value calculatedfrom the resource value, taken from the weather data, d. calculating thehourly and monthly output in relation to said expected energy value, e.performing historical performance analysis of the plant and achievementof large-scale time production assessments, through which it is possibleto identify the drops or faults, and f. providing one or more tablesand/or reports of the data produced including the calculation ofperformance.
 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the hourlyperformance of the plant is the precise ratio of energy with respect toan expected energy value; the monthly performance is the ratio betweenthe energy value gained from historical data and the expected energyvalue.
 7. The method according to claim 6, comprising comparing themonthly performance value with the hourly performance average, assessingthe proper operation of the “meter-supplier-electricity servicesprovider” chain.
 8. The method according to claim 5, wherein the methodcomprises sending plant malfunction alarms when the parameters resultingfrom monitoring and verification deviate from an established threshold.9. The method according to claim 5, comprising automatic reading of thehistorical values of energy produced from the production plants,acquiring them by public or private access to computers connected to theInternet network, made available by entities acquiring the measurementsfrom meters.
 10. The method according to claim 5, comprising providingthe processing of energy production reports, performance of the plantscompared to the economic values with the automatic reading of theeconomic values associated with the production of energy produced by theproduction plants, made available for public or private access fromcomputers connected to the Internet network, made available by entitiesacquiring the measurements from meters.